The Gilgamesh Conspiracy

by Jeffrey Fleming

  ‘I guess I have done ever since I met you in Muscat.’

  Gerry shook her head. ‘Back then I was cheerful, optimistic, happy. A lot’s happened to me since then: I’m a different person.’

  ‘Everybody changes,’ Dan replied. ‘Perhaps I can change you back to being happy, if you give me a chance.’

  She took a step towards him and they resumed kissing, and to show that she had no lingering inhibitions she plucked his shirt clear of his waist band and tugged it over his head and then lifted her arms so he could take off hers. She kept still while he fumbled with her bra hooks, then flung it aside and pulled him down on to the bed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Gerry woke up early in the morning and found that she was alone. Maybe Dan had gone back to his own room. She turned over and hugged a pillow but she was seized with a sudden anxiety. She telephoned his room but there was no reply. Suddenly her door clicked open. She rolled off the side of the bed, snatched up her gun from the bedside table and peered over the rumpled covers. Dan came into the room carrying the bundle of washing they had left in the laundry room and saw her.

  ‘What are you doing?’ he asked.

  ‘Defending myself against a man carrying a bunch of clothes apparently. Please don’t sneak in or out again.’

  ‘Ok, I won’t,’ he assured her, dumped the clothes on a chair and hobbled off to the bathroom. She climbed back into the bed and pulled the covers over her.

  How’s your ankle?’ she asked when he emerged. He twisted his foot back and forth.

  ‘Still aching, but I can walk normally. She forbore to comment as he walked over to the bed with a set face and then fell on to it beside her. ‘How are you?’

  ‘I’m fine, thank you,’ she replied giving him a gap toothed smile in return. ‘What’s the time?’ She answered her own question by propping herself on an elbow and reading 6am on the bedside clock.

  ‘There’s two hours before the post office opens,’ he said.

  ‘Good,’ she replied, threw aside the covers and rolled over on top of him.

  ‘Ooof,’ he exclaimed. ‘You’re certainly no lightweight.’

  Twenty minutes later he emerged from the shower and found her sitting staring at the mirror with a gloomy expression.

  ‘What’s on your mind?’ he asked.

  ‘After many years of anticipation I hope you haven’t become disillusioned with me. And I don’t mean by my performance in bed. I’m mad, bad and dangerous to know.’

  ‘Hey that sounds like Shakespeare.’

  ‘It’s actually how Lady Caroline Lamb described the poet Lord Byron when they first met; later they had an affair.’

  ‘Did it end happily?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m afraid not.’

  He walked over and kissed the top of her head. ‘I don’t think you’re a poet, and I’m certain I’m not a lady, so I won’t let that worry me. Come on let’s get dressed, it’s time for breakfast.’

  ‘We would like to rent, hire or lease a post office box,’ Gerry announced to the clerk.

  ‘Yes ma’am. Do you know what size you want? They’re between a hundred and ten and six hundred fifty dollars a year depending on size plus fifteen dollars for two keys.’

  ‘Oh we only need it for a short time,’ said Gerry.

  ‘Minimum rental time is three months. Say, are you Vanessa Davies?’

  Gerry felt a surge of adrenaline. She stepped back from the counter and spun round scanning the other occupants of the office.

  ‘Only er…ma’am, there was a guy in here earlier named Richard Cornwall who left a parcel for a Vanessa Davies, who er… said he was British, and that you were as well and that you er… could show a passport to pick it up. Ma’am?’

  Gerry slowly turned back to face the man. ‘Yes. I’m Vanessa Davies.’ She reached into her rucksack and pulled out the UK passport that Cornwall had given to her and handed it over.

  ‘Thank you. Just wait here and I’ll fetch it for you’

  Gerry stared out into the street. Dan was sitting in the car watching the entrance. She looked up and down but there was nobody who appeared suspicious. Nobody but Cornwall could know where she was, or that she possessed that alias, but how could he have got here so quickly? Had he been following her all this time?’

  ‘Here it is Miss Davies. You’ll have to sign this receipt.’

  Gerry signed and took the large, thick envelope from the curious official. She felt it carefully through the internal bubble wrap. It could easily be passports and a bundle of money. Then she saw the note written on the flap. “Starbucks, Mid Town Plaza. Top of each hour.”

  ‘Do you have a photocopier I could use?’ She asked.

  ‘Over there. You need quarters to operate it.’

  Gerry placed the envelope on top of the copier and fed in coins. With the lid up she studied it as the bright light made four passes under it.

  ‘Hey you’re meant to have the lid down!’ another customer suggested.

  ‘Bugger off!’ she muttered under her breath. She picked up the parcel and opened it. Inside it was a United Kingdom passport with Dan Hall’s image in the name of James Huntley. In another envelope was three thousand pounds sterling and seven thousand US dollars. ‘Thank you Richard,’ she muttered.

  ‘Could you tell me where Mid Town Plaza is?’ she asked the customer who had been keen to advise her on the use of a photocopier.

  She smiled happily as Dan climbed out the car and lifted his eyebrows. ‘Cornwall’s left an envelope for us to pick up. A UK passport for you and enough cash.’

  ‘He left it there?’ Dan frowned. ‘How did he get it here already?’

  ‘I don’t know. He wants us to meet him at Starbucks just south of here in Mid Town Plaza which is a shopping mall with underground parking. It’s just coming up to eight o’clock so I guess the place is open and he should be there.’

  Dan ordered two double tall lattes while Gerry looked around the coffee shop and then walked back outside and scanned the area. She checked her watch and sat down next to Dan who had chosen a table from where they could watch the entrance.

  ‘It doesn’t seem like he’s coming,’ Gerry admitted as she drained her coffee ten minutes later.

  ‘Should we stay around here?’ Dan asked, ‘or go back to the hotel and come back later.’

  ‘I guess...shit!’

  ‘Hi Gerry, hi Dan,’ said a young woman who had appeared beside their table. She took off her sunglasses and then her hat from under which long blonde hair tumbled down.

  ‘Annie Maddon,’ said Gerry, ‘what a pleasant surprise.’ She looked around once again, wondering if a team of agents was surrounding the coffee shop and going through her options: to flee, to fight, to grab Annie as a hostage. Had Cornwall betrayed her? Had Dan?

  ‘I expect you’re wondering how I got here,’ Annie suggested.

  ‘I certainly am,’ said Dan.

  ‘There’s just the two of us: me and Felix Grainger. Felix told me to come in to see you because he said I was less likely to get my head blown off. Richard Cornwall told us where you were and that you needed stuff. We brought it here.’ She smiled. ‘We’re on your side.’

  Gerry and Dan exchanged glances: Gerry shrugged. ‘She seems to be on her own. I don’t see how she could be here if she wasn’t telling the truth.’

  ‘Yeah I can buy that,’ Dan agreed. ‘Where’s Felix?’ he asked.

  ‘He’s waiting back at your hotel,’ Annie replied. ‘Shall we go and join him?’

  Felix Grainger smiled broadly as he shook Dan and Gerry by the hand.

  ‘It’s good to see you guys again. Richard Cornwall has briefed me. You don’t have much time. Cornwall asked me to ask you where you’re going in case he needs to find you again.’

  ‘We’re planning to go to Kuwait via Toronto, and then try and get a flight to Baghdad…’Dan began but Gerry grabbed his arm.

  ‘Wait! You’ll forgive my suspicions, but I’m not prepared to tell you
anything more Felix. Maybe I should trust you but I’ve no idea who you might talk to in your office or in mine. We’re going to leave tonight and anyone I find trailing us will be treated as an enemy.’

  ‘Fair enough.’ Grainger shrugged. ‘Well I guess I’ve done my bit. Annie and I will take off now.’ He reached into a pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. ‘Here’s some contact details. If you get stuck and you feel you can trust me you can give a call.’ Dan took it from him.

  ‘Ok Felix; thanks.’

  ‘We’ll see you around, then.’

  ‘You bet.’

  Grainger and Anne Maddon took a taxi back to the airport and settled down in the Starbucks concession to await their flight.

  ‘I guess it’s no surprise that Tate doesn’t trust anyone after what she’s been through,’ Maddon said.

  ‘I know, but they’re rather cutting themselves off.’

  ‘Cornwall didn’t give you any further clue as to their intentions did he?’ she asked.

  Grainger shook his head. ‘No. Whether that means he doesn’t know or if it means he’s just not telling, well you’re guess is as good as mine.’

  ‘Excuse me Felix, I need to go visit the rest room.’

  Boarding starts in ten minutes; I’ll see you at the gate.’

  ‘Ok.’

  Maddon picked her handbag and went to the rest room where she pulled out her cell phone. ‘Uh…General Bruckner? Maddon here. They’re ready to leave…No I’m not going to try and trail them. She and Hall were friendly enough but she gave us a warning that anyone she sees following them would be dealt with…What? Of course she’s serious, she’s a goddam psycho. They’re heading for Kuwait. You should have no trouble picking them up in Toronto.’

  As the Boeing 767 climbed out of Halifax airport Gerry twisted about and tried to get comfortable while she considered her last two trans-Atlantic flights. The first had been in the supreme comfort of a Gulfstream corporate jet and in the second one she had been lashed to the seat as a criminal. The best she could hope for now was that the flight would pass off quickly without any incident. Any discomfort she felt would easily be endured in the confident expectation of a safe arrival and in the comfort she felt in the presence of the man sitting next to her. She looked at his profile. He was not especially handsome and his features were spoilt by the dog bite scar that disfigured his cheek, but she had an undeniable urge to reach over and hug him. She tried to analyse when this emotional bonding had begun. She had originally thought that she had seduced him, or allowed him to seduce her as part of a general plan to bend him to her will, but now she felt an undeniable impulse to reveal her innermost secrets to him. She felt she needed to speak to him about her terrifying time on the raft and how she was rescued by Steven Morris, but of course not including her affair with him while she was on board. She wanted to talk to him about her life in prison, the unexpected death of her mother and giving up her baby for adoption. Not her sexual adventures with Angela though. Or maybe that would be a turn on for him? Men were weird that way. No better not risk it. She glanced towards him again. If he had experienced any gay encounters she certainly didn’t want to know. Anyway he was a regular guy in the marines, just like that Jasper White bastard, so no chance. Then she frowned as she thought about him.

  ‘Do you think Richard Cornwall will be ok,’ she asked Dan after a while, ‘I feel really guilty about leaving him in the lions’ den, so to speak.’

  ‘I’m sure they’re not going to arrange for his termination, not while we’re alive and loose anyway.’

  ‘I’ll bloody well be after them if they do,’ she muttered.

  ‘I hope you’re not considering some kind of death list after all this,’ he said. ‘We need to find out what this Gilgamesh thing is about, and then we can get people arrested.’

  ‘Don’t worry; I’m not trying to wreak vengeance and I don’t have a hit list,’ she assured him.

  Apart from the one with Robert Bruckner, Sir Hugh Fielding, Jasper White, Neil Samms and Vince Parker on it, she thought. She lapsed into silence and stared at the back of the seat in front of her. Dan briefly squeezed her hand. ‘What are you worrying about?’ he asked. She looked across at him.

  ‘I’m ready to tell you what happened to me after you left me and Ali Hamsin on the aircraft.’

  ‘Ok good, I was kinda hoping you would.’

  She described her fight on the aircraft, how she had fought the two pilots, the crash and her time on the raft with Ali and then his death. The near miracle of her rescue by Steven and the days spent on the yacht.

  He listened in silence asking the odd question but generally letting the story and emotion flood out. When she had finished her story she hesitated a moment and then made her admission. ‘Steven and me on the yacht; we had sex. Several times.’

  He remained still but she could hear him take a couple of deeper breaths. ‘Was it…was it having sex, or making love?’ he asked.

  ‘It was sex.’

  ‘Well I shouldn’t be surprised,’ he said. ‘After all you’d been through, the isolation. And him being alone on the yacht for all those weeks and then suddenly this beautiful women drops into his lap.’

  ‘So you’re not mad?’ she asked, ‘or disappointed?’

  He smiled at her. ‘Why should I be? I’d have no right, though I’m relieved you told me.’

  ‘What? I don’t get that.’

  ‘Well for one thing I would have guessed that you did, because I’m sure if I was in a similar situation I would have done the same.’

  ‘Ok…’

  ‘And for another, your hesitation in telling me shows that you were concerned about my reaction. So that means you care about me and my feelings.’

  ‘You’re right; I do’ she said. She grabbed his hand and then leant over and kissed him.

  ‘Terminal Five is certainly an improvement,’ said Gerry as they rode up an escalator and walked into the Arrivals hall. ‘It was still being built when I went inside. Not that way!’ she called to Dan as he walked towards the Foreign Nationals line. ‘You’re a UK citizen now.’

  ‘Oh gosh yes, so I am’ he said in an appalling attempt at a sounding British.

  ‘Let’s hope your passport is more convincing than your accent,’ she muttered as he lined up behind her. ‘Stop it!’ she said when he tweaked her backside.

  They emerged unscathed from immigration and took the coach to Oxford. ‘How far away’s this place where your folks lived?’ Dan asked.

  ‘It’s just beyond the city. From the centre we can get a bus to the village.’

  ‘Wouldn’t it’ve been quicker to hire a car?’

  ‘Well yes, but it would have been difficult without a credit card and I don’t want to leave any trail behind us if we can help it. Anyway we’ve got plenty of time.

  ‘I haven’t been on a bus in ages,’ he said.

  ‘Ok don’t be scared, I’ll look after you.’ she said with a grin.

  ‘You said you’d explain why we need to go there.’

  ‘I’ve got a small stash there. It’s under the garden shed. A couple of passports, a few other useful IDs, some more cash.’

  ‘Who owns the house now?’

  ‘My brother and I still own it, but it’s leased out,’ she explained. ‘We wanted to sell it but it proved difficult when I was inside, then property prices took a hit and it made better financial sense to keep it. I just hope the people in it aren’t at home. It’ll save some explanations.’

  So it proved when Gerry rang the bell and knocked on the front door. Then she clambered over the side gate and unbolted it. ‘I guess this is how you used to sneak your boyfriends in when you were a teenager,’ Dan said.

  ‘I didn’t have any boyfriends,’ she replied. ‘Not until I went to university. There’s the shed. Seems to be in good condition, and someone’s certainly looking after the garden. It’s beautiful.’

  Dan stared at her for a moment in surprise and then followed her over to th
e shed. ‘It’s padlocked,’ he said.

  She fumbled briefly underneath by the door and came up with a small plastic bag inside which was a slightly rusty key. Inside the shed she pulled an old petrol engine mower aside and lifted up the floorboards, and then from under the shed she pulled out a metal box with a combination lock. ‘Here it is!’

  She opened the lid and pulled out two hand guns wrapped in plastic and two boxes of ammunition. ‘Can’t take these with us, more’s the pity.’ She put them on the floor and pulled out a big envelope. ‘Here we are!’ She showed him a UK passport. ‘Do you recognise that name?’

  ‘Emily Stevens! I knew I recognised you from somewhere.’

  She put it back in the envelope and pulled out another. ‘Ah this one’s better. Anne Fuller.’ She pulled out a third, stared at it then handed it to him. ‘You can take this one as a spare.’ The photo showed a cheerful looking young man slightly overweight judging by his neck. ‘Matthew Reynolds. It’s due to expire in about eight months but it will get you out of the country.’

  Dan frowned at the picture. ‘He doesn’t look much like me, but then it’s nearly ten years old. How can I use this to go to Kuwait? The ticket’s in the name of James Huntley.’

  ‘I don’t think we should use those tickets. I think we should take a flight to Amsterdam or Frankfurt and then travel on from there.’

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘It’s just a feeling. If anyone’s on our tail then they’ll be expecting us to take the flight from London this evening we’re already booked on. This just leaves the trail cold.’

  ‘That makes sense, but why didn’t you say so before?’

  ‘I wasn’t sure if this stash would still be in place. It’s been over six years.’

  ‘Who’s this guy Reynolds in the passport?’ he asked.

  She suddenly looked deeply sad. ‘That’s Philip Barrett. Phil. It was one of his.’

  ‘Oh…I’m sorry.’

  ‘It’s ok. I’ve got through it and now I have you with me.’ She managed a smile. ‘Come on, we’re going to take the Eurostar to Paris and tomorrow we’ll fly to Amman. We can get visas on arrival there.’